Greenwich Country Day School

Senior Major Gifts Officer

DEERFIELD ASSOCIATES has been retained by Greenwich Country Day School, located in Greenwich, Connecticut, to conduct a national search for a Senior Major Gifts Officer. This opportunity is available immediately and will be filled following a comprehensive national search and the candidate of choice is identified and selected.

Greenwich Country Day School is an independent, co-educational day school with a current enrollment of over 1400 students in grades N-12, and a faculty and staff of over 350. The original Old Church Road campus is home to grades N-8. The High School, established in 2019, is located less than two miles away on Stanwich Road. Founded in 1926, Greenwich Country Day School is a family school where innovative teaching is encouraged as teachers model and foster a love of learning, challenge and inspire children toward academic excellence, and cultivate students’ interests and talents outside of the classroom. We value purposeful, personal learning in a joyful environment, with an emphasis on the development of character, creativity, and a sense of personal value, along with strong academic skills. GCDS is committed to graduating ethical, confident leaders who possess a strong sense of purpose.

GCDS is fortunate to have built a large endowment, which helps to fund competitive salaries and benefits, a robust professional development program, and reimbursement for graduate school tuition. GCDS offers a substantial need-based financial aid program to support students from a range of socio-economic backgrounds.

Greenwich Country Day School seeks an accomplished, relationship-driven Senior Major Gifts Officer (SMGO) to help secure transformational philanthropic support during a historic moment in the School’s trajectory as we begin our second century of educating and developing what is finest in our students. GCDS recently concluded an enormously successful $145 million campaign, GCDS FIRST, that galvanized record community participation and delivered a far-reaching impact for students and faculty.

Reporting to the Head of Advancement, the Senior Major Gifts Officer will manage a robust portfolio of donors and prospects, primarily at the six- and seven-figure levels. The Senior Major Gifts Officer will also cultivate new philanthropic relationships. This is a largely external-facing position, requiring travel both locally in the tri-state area and nationally.

The Opportunity

The Senior Major Gifts Officer will help foster a culture of collaboration, transparency, and shared purpose among the Advancement Team and with the campaign leadership. Working with a philanthropic community that is highly engaged and deeply invested in the mission, the successful candidate will bring both the discipline of metrics-driven fundraising and the intuition to cultivate authentic, enduring relationships. This role requires confidence, intellectual credibility, and warmth, as well as the ability to navigate complex donor relationships with trustees, parents, alumni, former parents, grandparents, and senior volunteers.

This is an opportunity to join a mission-driven school with extraordinary momentum, work closely with inspiring institutional leadership, and help secure the philanthropic resources that will shape GCDS’s future. The position offers not only the chance to strengthen GCDS’s culture of giving but also the opportunity to play a key role in advancing the mission of preparing young men and women to lead lives of purpose.

Key responsibilities: The duties and responsibilities of the SMGO include, but are not limited to:

Build, cultivate and maintain meaningful relationships with a portfolio of approximately 100-125 constituents (a mix of current parents, former parents, alumni, grandparents, and friends capable of making six- and seven-figure gifts).
Qualify, cultivate, solicit, close and steward prospects in the portfolio.
Collaborate with the Director of Campaigns and others on the Advancement Team to develop strategies for donor meetings, engagements, and proposals.
Prepare proposals and materials for solicitation and stewardship, including written documentation for accurate gift recording and use, acknowledgments, and reporting.
Complete a minimum of 140 visits with assigned prospects each year.
Secure six- and seven-figure gifts, as well as top leadership annual gifts, from donors in the portfolio.
Assist Advancement Team with activities and events, such as Reunion, Giving Day/Week, New Family Events, and more, as needed.
Travel for events, volunteer meetings, and prospect meetings, and work evenings and weekends when needed.
Maintain accurate and detailed records of activities using the school’s CRM, Raiser’s Edge NXT/Blackbaud.

Key Qualifications

Bachelor’s degree required.
8+ years of advancement experience required, preferably in higher education or at a boarding/independent school, preferably in a frontline fundraising capacity.
Proven track record of developing, engaging, and managing a large portfolio of donors/prospects.
Demonstrated track record of success with soliciting, cultivating and closing six-figure-plus gifts.

Other Key Competencies:

Excellent communication skills (oral and written) and the ability to engage varied audiences through oral and written communications, including gift proposals.
A demonstrated ability to collaborate and communicate with people at all levels of an organization and with volunteers.
Knowledge of CRM systems and donor-activity tracking.
An enthusiasm and genuine affinity for the students, mission, programs, and aspirations of GCDS.
Demonstrated organizational and time management skills, along with the ability to multitask with great attention to detail.
Ability to travel within the tri-state area and the United States, as needed, and attend school functions during and after normal business hours.

Anabel Pérez Wills
Director of Advancement

Anabel Pérez Wills has been the Advancement Director at Greenwich Country Day School for nearly 15 years. Prior to her time at GCDS, she spent over a decade in higher education and global think tanks, holding a variety of development roles. Her experience includes serving as the Senior Vice President of Development for Catalyst, the Director of Development for Southern Europe at INSEAD in Fontainebleau, France, and the Director of Leadership Gifts for The Fletcher School at Tufts University, her alma mater. It was at Tufts that she had the privilege of working under former U.S. Ambassador Stephen W. Bosworth, igniting her passion for international fundraising.

Anabel holds a B.A. in International Relations from Tufts University and a J.D. from Boston College Law School.

An avid globe-trotter and with the ability to communicate in four languages, Anabel has traveled and lived across Europe, Asia, North Africa, and Latin America. Recently, she and her family walked 121 km of El Camino de Santiago – Camino Francés.

Residing in Stamford, CT, Anabel shares her home with her husband, Steven, their daughter, Lauren (GCDS ’26), and their Bombay cat, Rupert.

Adam Rhodie
Head of School

As Head of School at Greenwich Country Day School, Adam Rohdie has spent the past 22 years guiding Connecticut’s largest independent N–12 school through a period of historic growth. Under his stewardship, GCDS expanded from an 845-student primary campus to a thriving 1,450-student college preparatory powerhouse.

Along the way, Rohdie has overseen almost half a million square feet of eco-friendly capital development—including LEED Gold facilities powered predominantly by solar energy—raised over $250 million in philanthropic gifts, and expanded the school’s endowment from $26M to $140M.

Before joining GCDS, Rohdie served as Assistant Headmaster at The Pingry School in New Jersey. A graduate of Wesleyan (BA) and Stanford (MA), he stays deeply connected to daily student life by teaching Upper School history and coaching basketball. Adam lives in Greenwich with his wife, Alisa, and their two sons, Cal and Zach.
https://www.gcds.net/how-gcds-thinks/thoughts-from-our-head-of-school

Greenwich Country Day School Benefits

GCDS oﬀers a dynamic and supportive work environment, competitive salaries and a comprehensive beneﬁts package including a generous retirement employer match, paid vacation, tuition remission (for admissible children), sick time, medical, dental and vision insurance, short-term and long-term disability and paid parental leave.

GCDS is an Equal Opportunity Employer. GCDS does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, national or ethnic origin in the administration of its educational, admission, financial aid program, employment policies or any other programs administered by the school.

Target Hiring Salary Range

The target hiring salary range for this position is $130k-$160k, with the final salary determined based on the candidate’s advancement experience, fundraising skills and overall qualifications.

To learn more about GCDS, visit www.gcds.net

Contact Information

To explore this career opportunity on a confidential basis, please send your resume, a letter of interest articulating your interest, skill sets and work experiences for this opportunity, and a list of four (4) references (which will only be contacted if mutual interest is determined) to:

Doug Cooney, Executive Search Consultant, DEERFIELD ASSOCIATES Executive Search, Inc.
572 Washington Street, Suite 15, Wellesley, MA 02482 Telephone: 781-237-2800.
Email: jobs@deerfieldassociates.com